I don't understand. Of course it doesn't feel like the bond you grew up watching. James bond has morphed multiple times since even 5 years ago. It simply isn't the same bond you grew up watching. It's new technology. It's a different director. It's a different actor playing James Bond. It's made to cater to a different generation. But that's exactly it: it will always be James Bond, right?
If we didn't agree on that, we wouldn't have seen all of them nor would we have gone out to see the newest installment.
Are you saying that anything 007 that isn't the same as your childhood is inherently inferior?
OR are you saying that you can't judge it as a bond film, because it's simply too different?
Of course not, I don't think everything revolves around me or my tastes to the point where anything that isn't within the parameters of those tastes is automatically inferior to answer the first question. As a film its quality is great but it just doesn't feel like the classic bond films to me. "Inferior" however is subjective, simply put it's not my thing.
To answer the second question, this is somewhat true. The reason it's too different along with ones like die another day, quantam of solace is because absence of the cold war setting, yes I know these films change with the times, but the ones set back then appealed to my tastes more. Cold war is something I'm quite interested in so for me it add's to the experience, that and as a plot element it introduced higher stakes for bond to go up against seeing as the older villains had a habit of trying to bring about World war three by medeling with both sides.
I often find the characters in the newer ones to be bland and forgettable, whereas in the older ones you had Oddjob the mute, smiling korean muscle-man who kills people with his hat, or jaws the big hulking lumox with a deadly smile < these fellas had something uniqely distinctive about them and were menacing yet entertaining at the same time, I hardly remember the villains/henchmen from the more recent films they don't stand out enough for me, I don't fall in love with them like I do the others. Prefered the locations too in the older films, how elaborate and far-fetched some of the Villains secret bases were, lot's of escapism.
Not only that but I always prefered the soundtracks in the older films with John Barry's orchestra music; which I'm a major fan of, the newer soundtracks just have the same magic in my opinion. I could hum many of those in my head for hours. Can't remember any of the background music from Skyfall already and I didn't even see it that long ago, can only just about recollect the theme music itself to be honest.
Another thing that I like is the slower pace of the old bond flicks, it gave you time to sit back and fully absorb things. The space abduction scenes from You only live twice for example: they way the SPECTRE space capsule slowly approaches the Astro/cosmonauts' space crafts before swallowing them had me on the edge of my seat as a child especially a it was combined with John Barry's 'Capsule in space' theme which gave the sequence a tension that then lead to an unforgettable climax where the predatory capsule devours the victim module before silently drifting away. Or who could forget the laser scene from Goldfinger, once again the steady peace timed perfectly with the worrying music as everyone watching thinks bond is going to loose his man-parts to that dreadful toy of Goldfingers, simply hair-raising everything in the newer installments happens too fast for me to take it in properly, which is probably why I find it so forgettable.
Another reason I prefer the older ones is because of Connery's wit and and suarve peronality, whereas Daniel Craig kinda just likes to dive through windows and land on top of people then beat them to death < too much of this. I'm not saying they need to go back to Connery's style by all means stay with craigs, I fully understand that if they kept with the same formula for every Bond over the past 50 years then the franchise would have stagnated and people would have stopped watching decades, the way he changes with each actor is a good thing in my opinion. However Craig will never be my prefered bond, this isn't a matter of who's better, it is a matter of preference and I
prefer Connery's style.
It is bond, but isn't my kind of Bond. Yes I went to see it but I do this to give it a chance and plus my friend wanted me to watch it with him, but if some all-powerful force appeared said to me "you are never to watch this film again." I'd just shrug my shoulders and be fine with it. If I was never allowed to watch From Russia with love or the Spy who loved me again however, I'd be very depressed.
